'Hardly reassuring': Ex-Trump adviser heightens concern with Greenland talk
The White House Security Council exists to offer presidents advice and information to guide their decisions — but that dynamic was flipped when Donald Trump was commander in chief, according to a columnist.
His former national security adviser Robert O'Brien reprised that dynamic over the weekend by defending the president-elect's suggestion that the U.S. should purchase Greenland, insisting on social media that Trump is “100% right again.”
MSNBC's Steve Benen said the episode was an indication of what's to come.
"For the better part of the last century, the White House National Security Council existed to offer presidents advice and information," Benen wrote. "In the Trump era, the model was flipped: O’Brien told NSC members what the then-president already believed and directed them to offer support for the positions Trump had already adopted."
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O'Brien argued that Greenland, an autonomous territory that's part of Denmark, was strategically important as a bulwark against Russia and China, and he proposed making it part of Alaska if Denmark was unwilling to pay for its defense, all of which Benen said made no sense but which he found troubling nonetheless.
"He did not appear to be kidding," Benen wrote. "I won’t pretend to know why Trump became fixated on U.S. ownership of Greenland — which still isn’t for sale — or how this odd preoccupation will be resolved. But with three weeks remaining before the Republican’s inauguration, it’s hardly reassuring to see his former White House national security advisor on national television making veiled threats against a NATO ally."